Updating EBAY INC., LIMITED BRANDS INC. and MTS SYSTEMS INC.

Article Excerpt

EBAY INC. $31 (www.ebay.com) saw its earnings per share jump 20% in the three months ended September 30, 2011, to $0.48 from $0.40 a year earlier. These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs to integrate recent acquisitions. Revenue rose 31.9%, to $3.0 billion from $2.2 billion, mainly due to strong growth at its PayPal online payments business. Best Buy. LIMITED BRANDS INC. $43 (www.limitedbrands.com) will spend $590 million to upgrade its stores and open new outlets in fiscal 2013, which ends January 31, 2013. That’s up 38.8% from the $425 million it spent on capital improvements in fiscal 2012. Most of these funds will go toward opening new Victoria’s Secret lingerie stores outside the U.S. Limited held cash of $1.0 billion, or $3.44 a share, on July 31, 2011, so it can easily afford to expand. Buy. MTS SYSTEMS INC. $36 (www.mts.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 25.0%, to $0.25 a share from $0.20. The new annual rate of $1.00…